Karzais gone wild

The ongoing saga of maybe-a-drug-lord Ahmed Wali Karzai continues (h/t Vital Concerns). A McClatchey reporter asks the black sheep of the Karzai family some uncomfortable questions and gets roughed up:

He began to glare at me and questioned whether I was really a reporter.

“It seems like someone sent you to write these things,” he said, scowling.

Karzai glared some more.

“You should leave right now,” he said.

I stuck my hand out to shake his; if I learned anything from three years of reporting in Iraq and then trips to Afghanistan during the past couple of years, it’s that when things turn bad, you should cling to any remaining shred of hospitality.

Karzai grabbed my hand and used it to give me a bit of a push into the next room. He followed me, and his voice rose until it was a scream of curse words and threats.

I managed to record just one full sentence: “Get the (expletive) out before I kick your (expletive).”

Brothers can be embarrassing. But at least presidential brothers Roger Clinton and Billy Carter weren’t regularly accused of being in the heroin business.

More on Afghan government involvement in the drug trade from the same reporter here and here.